Warren Sapp retired from the NFL in 2008 after a four-year stint with the Oakland Raiders, walking away from the game while many around the league believed the seven-time Pro Bowler still had plenty left in the tank. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers icon spent years fielding whispers about a potential return, but the Hall of Fame defensive tackle never budged.
Warren Sapp Details Refusing NFL Comeback
During an interview with former NFL quarterback Chris Simms on the “Chris Simms Unbuttoned” show, Sapp revealed why he turned down an NFL comeback after retiring in 2008.
“I’mma tell you something your father (Phil Simms) told me when I got to him inside the NFL,” Sapp said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Big boy, you still could play.’ I said, ‘Yeah. But I don’t wanna play anymore, Phil.’ He’s like, ‘What? I would make them take my helmet out of my cold dead fingers.'”
“I had won 15 games in four years at Oakland, and I was beat down mentally with people that was showing up talking about how much somebody on the TV make and why they don’t make that, and they hadn’t started for five games in seven years,” Sapp added. “It was crazy. And then I was 3,000 miles away from my family and home. So other than the wine and the lunches in Napa, I was like, ‘I ain’t coming back to training camp. I can’t do this.'”
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Sapp had an outstanding college football career with the Miami Hurricanes, winning the Bronko Nagurski Trophy (best defensive player), the Bill Willis Award (best defensive lineman), the Lombardi Award (best lineman/linebacker), and finishing No. 6 in the 1994 Heisman Trophy voting.
He was selected No. 12 overall by the Buccaneers in the 1995 NFL Draft. Sapp won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1999 and helped lead the Bucs to Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002. Sapp joined the Oakland Raiders (now the Las Vegas Raiders) in 2004 and retired in 2008.
Sapp has a complicated NFL legacy due to both on-field altercations and off-field issues. He earned four first-team All-Pro and two second-team All-Pro nods. In addition, he was voted to the 1990s and 2000s NFL All-Decade Teams.
He had his No. 99 jersey retired by the Bucs and was inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Honor.
Since his retirement, Sapp has worked as an analyst on NFL Network, appeared as a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars,” released a book, coached in Colorado, and indulged in stand-up comedy.
